23 weeks pregnant - xray

[AR25]

I’m so annoyed, I am 23 weeks pregnant and went to the dentist for a check up (just wanted to check oral health and make sure everything is healthy whilst pregnant) I kept my eyes shut as not a fan of the dentist and next thing he’s doing x-rays. The only thing he said to me was “I’m just going to check the back teeth” when he put the shield in so I kept my eyes shut and then he’d done the x-ray. I would not have allowed him to do this if I’d known, I’d also written on my medical chart that I was 23 weeks pregnant. I am so upset, constant worrying about the radiation, I obviously didn’t have any lead gown applied etc, he told me it’s such low radiation but I’m just angry and upset about it. I wondered if anyone else had been in a similar situation

Did he and the assistant leave the room? I've never had a dental X-ray where they've stayed.

Dental x-ray is fine, it's not aimed at the baby and they're so very mild frequencies. Quite a few issues can occur with your teeth and gums in pregnancy owing to all the hormones floating around in your system. They will never knowingly put you or your baby at risk. Please try not to worry.

I had to have a chest xray, so much closer to the bump, and they saId it was fine

The reason why they leave the room is because they would be getting repeated exposures all day every day. If you had an accident (god forbid) you’d have an X-ray of much higher radiation (that would still be safe) so politely, relax, it will be fine.

As PP said, you can get some nasty issues with teeth & gums throughout pregnancy so at least now you don’t need to worry about that.

Dental nurse here who takes dental xrays. Generally, they avoid xrays in the first trimester just as an extra precaution. In your second trimester it's fine. It's such a small amount of radiation. It's probably the same amount you're exposed to on a daily basis just from going out and about.
Lead aprons are not really recommended anymore. There's research showing that they actually make the scatter worse. We don't even ask if a patient is pregnant anymore cause we don't take any extra precautions. You and your baby will be absolutely fine ❤️

Yes they left very quickly which is when I opened my eyes and when he came back in I said to him did you just do an X-ray? Then he looked at my chart and said oh yes, it’s low risk exposure, but didn’t even tell me he was doing an X-ray or ask if it was ok

Thank you, that’s very reassuring and has made me feel much better ❤️

Hi radiographer here 👋 the radiation dose for a dental xray is TINY and very far away from baby! Do not worry in slightest… but consent wise they should really have been telling you what they were doing as they were doing it…

@AR25 you're welcome. He absolutely should have taken your verbal consent before taking the xray, pregnant or not. So he was absolutely wrong there. However, it is totally normal to leave the room as the walls are usually lead lined which protects the operator. When I take xrays I leave the room and close the door and stand at the window and watch. That's cause we are exposed all day and you are only exposed once. I hope you feel better ❤️

You’re fine :) really no increased risk of any problem for baby. Avoiding XR in pregnancy is really out of excess caution where it’s avoidable, there would be higher risk to baby of complications if eg you had an untreated tooth abscess.
if it helps also, if a baby is born at 23 weeks, one of the first things that gets done after stabilising, is an XRay… multiple XR in fact to check lungs, check placement of tubes and lines, etc etc.

Thank you! That’s so true and very helpful

I was born in the 1960's before ultrasound was a thing. My mum was convinced that I was head up rather than down in the last week's of pregnancy.
At first then medical staff didn't believe her but she was so insistent that they eventually xrayed me in the womb to check.
As far as I know it hasn't caused me any difficulties or health problems and was a much larger dose than a dental x-ray.

My mum was right by the way and I ended up having a (very difficult) breech birth.

I was told the same as this for the chest xray - they don’t cover up the bump because it doesn’t make it safer.

I was very scared and asked repeatedly about the safety, so I get where you are coming from. It feels so strange because when you have any kind of scan they ask you about 50 times if you could be pregnant. I have just looked it up and apparently dental X-rays are apparently about the same as your normal dose of radiation just from walking about and ten times less than taking a flight! Who knew!?

@Dodgethis yeah, its a really really small amount. It just seems scary at the time! You obviously don't wanna do anything that might harm your baby but it's safe 😊

I had to have a CT scan when 25 weeks pregnant and that baby is currently 14 and thriving ❤️ hope this eases some of your worry xx